WOMEN No longer are we guilded posies‘

engaging when compliant exquisite when yielding

and no longer downtrodden

workers at half price no security

no egality

only duty

we have cried out

"we are human beings!"

These two poens were itten by Sugiarti Siswadi, n Indonesian woman who has een in prison since 1966. ugiarti comes from Central ava. Her husband is also

ooked after by relatives uring the ten years of the arent's detention. Sug- arti is about 48 years old. Sugiarti established her- elf as a well known writer nd poet in Indonesia in the arly 1950s. She was par- icularly well known for her hort story "Paradise on O and for her contribu— lons to the Communist Party

ewspaper Harian Rakyat

m H H ‘2

Poems by SugioxrfiSuswodi, An

enchanting when submissive. to hell it is our duty to go to heaven permitted to follow.

are we blossoms cast aside

1

selling our sweat for next to nothing

from behind the walls of segregation from the clutches of the spiteful bed from the nightly business in the gutters from the revenge of-unwilling wedlock

H. {W ‘3 §

Sugiarti was also a leader of the Jakarta branch of the leftwing cultural or- ganisation, LEKRA and a mem— ber of the leftwing women's organisation, Gerwani. Both these organisations were banned after the abortive coup in 1965 and many of the people associated with these organisations were arrested

in the aftermath of the coup.

Sugiarti was co—editor of the Gerwani magazine A21 Kartini. This paper educa- tionalist, Kartini, who died in 1901 when she was in her early twenties.

At the time of the abor— tive ecup and the counter coup that brought General Suharto to power in 1965, Gerwani was one of many mass

“(millth 'li’iiiiii“

The Cadre, Sept. 16, 1975, page 7

FREEDOM

Indonesian Political Prisoner

Freedonrhas changed the face of the world it rules the mind, the heart and the person it dispels the mist hanging over the

mountains, the valleys

the shores, the fields, the factories and

the cities ‘

and the hearts of us, women.

now we are no longer

just giving birth to worker soldiers.

we too are worker soldiers.

no longer just wives of people's heroes, we too are people's heroes ’

and when the fortresses of obsolete time are

smashed

and workers' power stands proudly on Our land we shall no longer only tend the graves

read the prayers and weep for the dead

we shall be part of the formost ranks.

organisations which were banned together with the Indonesian Communist Party. The membership of Gerwani numbered over one million. After ten years four leading Indonesian women have been tried. They have received stiff sentences ranging from 15 to 20 years for their al— legedsubversive activities at the time of the coup. They were not accused of in— volvement in the coup at- tempt itself. Two of these women were Gerwani leaders. These four women are likely to be the last women tried for a long time to come. Of the hundreds of others, in-

.cluding Sugiarti Siswadi,

still in prison in Indonesia most of them will never re—

ceive a trial, will not know what they are accused of or when they will be set free.

September 30th is the an— niversary of the abortive coup in Indonesia. For tens of thousands of people it is also the anniversary of ten years of political imprison— ment.

Distributed by: Amnesty International ?.0. Box 6145

2101 Algonquin Ave. Ottawa, Ont. KZA 1T2

Contact:

Susan Swan

45 Elgin Ave.

Toronto, Ont. MSR 1G5 (telephone: 416-925—1591)